PENANG, 15 May 2015 – To ensure the continued excellence of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), each member of its community must be self-disciplined and embody the principles of responsibility and integrity, regardless of whether he or she is being monitored by the head of department or any other party.

In a speech delivered during the 2014 Service Excellence Awards (APC) ceremony, the USM Vice-Chancellor Professor Dato' Dr. Omar Osman stated that staff with an apathetic attitude would tarnish the image of the university and deter its mission to drive excellence.

“Besides this, efficiency of the staff needs be enhanced in line with national development as we approach developed nation status,” said Omar.

The Vice-Chancellor explained that these were core issues faced by many organisations, hence urgent action was required, whether in the form of re-education, re-structuring or any other means to ensure that there was no ‘dead wood’ in the organisation.

“Those who are languishing in the comfort zone should also be awakened from their slumber so that they will discharge their duties and responsibilities competently and competitively,” continued the Vice-Chancellor in his speech.

A total of 796 recipients were awarded the APC for the previous year’s performance, consisting of 414 (52.01%) from the Services l category, 149 (18.72%) from Support Services ll, while 120 recipients (15.08%) were selected from the Academic category and 96 or 12.06% were Management and Professional category recipients. Members from the Special Top Management accounted for 2.01% or 16 recipients, and one member (0.13%) from the Main Top Management category also received the APC.

“At the meeting of the university’s Human Resources Development Panel, we found that many of the staff had delivered excellent work and were eligible for the award, with 77.20% achieving average performance appraisal marks of 85% and above,” the Vice-Chancellor revealed.

The Vice-Chancellor noted that the main challenge facing USM now, which would continue into the future, is the readiness of its staff to work hard to deliver swift results, and to exercise intelligence, creativity and innovation in discharging their duties. If everyone were to co-operate to achieve this aspiration, the institution would be able to grow from strength to strength, and USM would truly be an estimable organisation.  

Hence the Vice-Chancellor urged the USM community to enhance and sustain the excellence already achieved to spur the university on to greater heights in the future.

Also present on the occasion were the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) Professor Dato' Dr. Muhamad Jantan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Community Network) Professor Dato' Dr. See Ching Mey and the Registrar, Siti Zubaidah A. Hamid. - Translation: Dr Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah/Text: Syuhada Abdul Aziz/Edited: Mohamad Abdullah